Philly school board’s vice president is resigning, a possible sign of big changes ahead

Mallory Fix-Lopez, the school board vice president, announced her resignation from the board Monday — an unexpected twist and a sign of major changes coming to the Philadelphia School District’s governing body.

Fix-Lopez, 39, an original member of the school board that moved the district from state to local control under former Mayor Jim Kenney, has served for six years; her resignation is effective April 18. She has withdrawn her name from consideration for reappointment to the new board that’s expected to be named by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker by the spring.

Fix-Lopez said the time commitment of the board work — last week she spent 26 hours in board or board-related meetings, on top of working full-time as a professor at Community College of Philadelphia, owning a small business, and parenting two young children — forced her hand.

But it’s an about-face at a tense time for the board. Fix-Lopez and board president Reginald Streater said before Parker took office that they wanted to continue serving on the board and in leadership roles, and she had reapplied for a seat on Parker’s board.

» READ MORE: What will 2024 bring for Philly schools? We talk with the school board president and VP.

Fix-Lopez, in an interview, said it was the time commitment of the board work — which is unpaid — that made her change her mind.

“I have reflected a lot more on my family, and when I look at the task ahead through this next transition, I have to put my family first,” said Fix-Lopez. “I want to be deeply committed to my local school and I can’t do that while on the board. What gives me pause is knowing how much work the board is, with any administration. I need to put my attention on my family.”

Fix-Lopez’s oldest child is a second grader at Childs Elementary in Point Breeze, and her youngest will attend kindergarten there in the fall.

She’s leaving before Parker’s new board will be seated because of the timing of a medical procedure she needs, Fix-Lopez said. She said she will continue to back the board and Tony B. Watlington Sr., the superintendent she helped hire.

“I’m excited about the next iteration of the board and will continue to fully support this work,” said Fix-Lopez. “I know how hard it is. The young people of Philadelphia deserve to have a thriving education system, and I have confidence that with a strong board, the capable leadership of Dr. Watlington, the school district will continue the forward progress we’ve built since 2018.”

Fix-Lopez’s announcement comes on the heels of a charged school board meeting Thursday, at which the board voted, 6-3, to deny for the third time an application for a new Global Leadership Academy International Charter High School.

The denial came against the backdrop of a mayor who is pro-charter, and amid pleas from politicians, parents, and students to consider the charter application. The majority of the board, and Fix-Lopez, said they could not support the school, given concerns about the other charters the organization runs.

» READ MORE: Philly officials denied Global Leadership Academy a new charter for the 3rd time, and other takeaways from the school board meeting

At Global Leadership Academy Charter School, 4% of students met state standards in math and 19% in reading in 2022-23; at Global Leadership Academy Southwest, it was 1% and 15%, respectively.

Fix-Lopez said the vote was unrelated to her decision to resign.

“Charter schools are public schools, and there is a place for charter schools in Philadelphia; we are a system of schools,” said Fix-Lopez. Though Kenney’s school board approved no new charter schools and drew ire from a group of Black-led charter schools who alleged bias, Fix-Lopez said she believed the board has a “charter-friendly” record; she pointed to 78 charter renewals and the expansion of existing charters by 2,000 seats on her board’s watch.

Parker, in a statement, said she wished Fix-Lopez “all our best.”

“The City of Philadelphia and the Parker administration expresses its deep thanks to Vice President Mallory Fix-Lopez for her public service, not only to the Board of Education for the School District of Philadelphia, but for every child and student educated in our public school system,” Parker said. “Serving on the school board is a serious commitment, and to me represents an individual fulfilling one of the most important roles in our democracy: citizen.”

Fix-Lopez was first elected vice president in 2022; she was reelected in December. But both elections exposed divisions in the board; members Lisa Salley and Cecelia Thompson opposed Streater and Fix-Lopez both times. Salley has said the board has “secret meetings” and suggested it lacks leadership.

Though she said she never sought the spotlight or realized how much of a public figure board members are by default, Fix-Lopez — who is currently both the only educator and the only white person on the board — made her presence known on the board from the beginning.

She often spoke out for issues she cared about, particularly around language access for multilingual students and families and the district’s groundbreaking Policy 252, which supports transgender and gender nonconforming students. Fix-Lopez also helped bring “Goals and Guardrails” to the district — an accountability framework that centers the board’s work on student achievement, with regular reckonings on subjects like math and English performance, college and career readiness, and other issues.

Fix-Lopez helped write the board’s governance policies as it transitioned to local control, and was the point person for superintendent evaluations.

Though Streater led the board, he and Fix-Lopez worked as a unit, deliberately. Streater most often handled the public-facing roles of the job, the political side, and Fix-Lopez headed up the board’s academic work. The pair said they set out to be more responsive than the board had been in the past; when community groups protested, they were often outside, watching and listening, as they were on Thursday when teachers rallied against the district’s sick-leave policy.

Streater, in a statement, praised Fix-Lopez as “an incredible educator, colleague and friend, whose service, dedication and sacrifice over the last six-plus years has ... helped to propel the board’s mission to govern from a student-centered perspective with student achievement at its core.”

She “has left an indelible mark on the board,” Streater said, adding that “her loss will be deeply felt.”

Interviews for new board members are ongoing; the city’s educational nominating panel is scheduled to meet March 12 to announce its 27 board finalists.

Parker will then choose nine board members from among the 27. The new board is expected to be seated sometime in the spring.